Rye Meads

Slightly odd blog title I know... but we've had quite alot of questions recently about some brown things next to the path... so I thought I would do a blog post and explain all!

Just over the first bridge along the edge of the path, and up the banks there are things that currently look like this:These strange brown things are actually giant puffball mushrooms!

In summer you may have noticed them looking more like this:Picture by Andy Hawsworth

This white shape is the fruiting body of the fungi, and they can be about the size of a football. The flesh will become yellow and eventually brown and the spores develop. When ready the outer wall (peridium - have a look at the first picture, you can see the top fungi still has some of the outer wall) breaks open and the spores are released in response to physical contact - rain drops or creatures going past.

In summer if you see these along the paths please don't kick them! A lot of these fabulous mushrooms get trodden on or kicked so they die, thank you!

Has any one seen the small wasp nest, about the size of a golfball, in the back of the Warbler Hide?

Andy Schofield, who is the RSPB warden from The Lodge nature reserve, identified it as a paper wasp nest.

Photo by Andy Hawksworth

The whole thing is essentially made from papier mache – chewed wood mixed with wasp saliva to make a water-resisitant nest. As it’s now unused for the winter, and they always build a new nest, we decided to take it down and look inside. There were several spherical layers and inside that a small cluster of brood cells. A really amazing structure!

Photo by Andy Hawksworth

I've been reading up on paper wasps, they are pretty amazing!They are 1.8-2.5 cm long, and there are about 700 different species of paper wasp.

Paper wasps won't sting, unless they feel threatened, or their nest is threatened. So if you see a wasp don't flap your arms and scream - you're more likely to get stung as the wasp will think you are attacking it.

It has been discovered that paper wasps have facial recognition abilities similar to humans! They can recognise individual wasps based on their facial markings! Amazing!